10-week fitness challenge | The get-fit diary of an out-of-shape office worker April 28, 2014 Steve is undertaking a 10 week “total body transformation” programme with No.1 Fitness, which involves four sessions a week at the gym, a strictly-controlled diet and absolutely no alcohol under any circumstances whatsoever (not even a little bit, just to take the edge off…). Here’s how it’s going: The last fortnight has been tough. I’m [...]
Sydney, Australia: the global cultural capital of the future April 27, 2014 Forget the stereotype, Australians can do hipster as well WHAT’S the difference between Australia and a petri dish? If you leave a petri dish for long enough it will eventually develop a culture… Or so the joke used to go. But anyone who’s visited Sydney recently would struggle to justify that view. Australia’s economy has [...]
48 hours in… Berlin April 27, 2014 WHERE TO STAY Rocco Forte’s Hotel de Rome is located on one of the most important squares in former East Berlin. The rooms are among the most luxurious in Germany. WHERE TO EAT There are plenty of high end restaurants in Berlin like the Ganymed Brasserie (pictured) but Turkish is the cuisine that draws the [...]
A mean, green, plug-in machine April 22, 2014 The new Mitsubishi Outlander lasts and lasts – it might just be the SUV to clean up the City BATH is a beautiful spa town with World Heritage City status. But its traffic is terrible. If you thought the City was bad, try Bath at 8am on a weekday. It’s the perfect place to sit [...]
Not convinced? April 22, 2014 CHECK OUT THESE ALTERNATIVES… NISSAN LEAF PRICE: £21,490 (after grant) 0-62MPH: 11.5 secs TOP SPEED: 87mph CO2 G/KM: 0g/km MPG COMBINED: N/A THE VERDICT: DESIGN One Star PERFORMANCE Two Stars PRACTICALITY Two Stars VALUE FOR MONEY Two Stars TOYOTA PRIUS PLUG-IN PRICE: £28,395 (after grant) 0-62MPH: 11.3 secs TOP SPEED: 112mph CO2 G/KM: 49g/km MPG COMBINED: 134.5mpg THE VERDICT: [...]
Exhibition of the decade so far April 21, 2014 ART HENRI MATISSE: THE CUT-OUTS Tate Modern Five Stars IT’S A moving story: a great painter whose health is failing him moves into the stage of life we usually associate with greyness and discovers colour. A 72-year-old Matisse was forced to lay down his brush after a cancer operation in 1941, but this led him [...]
Spider-Man entertains but fails to amaze April 21, 2014 FILM AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 Cert 12A Three Stars MARC Webb’s second installment of the re-booted Spider-Man franchise feels like a throwback to the super-hero movies of a decade ago – the first Hulk, Bryan Singer’s X-Men movies, Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil. It’s all spectacle, explosions and a dash of romance. It’s melodramatic rather than dark, [...]
No punch in Thompson and Brosnan rom-com April 21, 2014 FILM THE LOVE PUNCH Cert 12A Two Stars IT’S UNCLEAR why this film is called The Love Punch. The title is never mentioned, no one drinks any punch and it isn’t really about love. Richard (Pierce Brosnan) owns an investment firm that’s bankrupted by a dodgy, cackling Frenchman. Assets crippled, Richard rushes to ex-wife Kate [...]
Incest is best in this Cheek By Jowl production April 21, 2014 THEATRE ‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE Barbican Four Stars CHEEK By Jowl’s production of John Ford’s 1633 play ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore rips some of the flesh from the original but preserves its darkly beating heart. Condensed into an intense interval-less two hours, it’s a bloody collision of taboos lit up by a sparkling [...]
10-week fitness challenge | The get-fit diary of an out-of-shape office worker April 21, 2014 Steve is undertaking a 10 week “total body transformation” programme with No.1 Fitness, which involves four sessions at the gym a week, a strictly-controlled diet and absolutely no alcohol under any circumstances whatsoever (not even a little bit, just to take the edge off…). Here’s how it’s going: I’VE never been a fit man. I [...]